Perpendicular diffusion of a dilute beam of charged dust particles in a strongly coupled dusty plasma

The diffusion of projectiles drifting through a target of strongly coupled dusty plasma is investigated in a simulation. A projectile's drift is driven by a constant force F. We characterize the random walk of the projectiles in the direction perpendicular to their drift. The perpendicular diffusion coefficient D-p perpendicular to is obtained from the simulation data. The force dependence of D-p perpendicular to is found to be a power law in a high force regime, but a constant at low forces. A mean kinetic energy W-p for perpendicular motion is also obtained. The diffusion coefficient is found to increase with W-p with a linear trend at higher energies, but an exponential trend at lower energies. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.